Happy Birthday Two You

An evening of impersonation for me today: time to do my best grandmother impression.

Mr TLC’s beautiful granddaughter (who really needs a blog name, Baby A just doesn’t fit her anymore) is two today. Where does the time go?

I hadn’t seen her for a while and the change was dramatic: from toddler to a very tall two year old little girl in the space of a few weeks. Wow.

I had deliberately stepped back somewhat and encouraged Mr TLC to visit on his own in recent weeks. I initially pleaded pressure of work/having a highly contagious sniffle/insert your choice of lame excuse here, but the reality was rather different. I’ve noticed that when we both visit, someone called ‘Nana Lois’ (whoever that might be, she says, rolling her eyes) gets the lion’s share of the attention from no-longer-a-baby A, whereas Mr TLC – who is an actual genuine grandparent, not some Johnny-come-lately imposter – gets largely ignored.

Anyhoo, we turned up bearing cake and gifts for the birthday girl. I thought no-longer-a-baby A would have forgotten me, but she flung herself at me with great enthusiasm, before teaching me the finer points of eating plastic broccoli and how to dismantle a much-loved doll.

We sang happy birthday, blew out candles and ate cake. We discovered that the wrapping paper and bag were much more interesting than the presents. Isn’t that always the case?

All in all, a lovely evening; although I don’t think I will ever get used to being referred to as ‘Nana Lois’ (not my choice of name, I’d have been happy with plain old Lois, but hey). Much as I love no-longer-a-baby A, in no way do I feel like a grandparent – after all Mr TLC’s son was already grown up when I first met him. It avoided all that awkward fake parent business, but apparently fake grandparent business was lurking instead. Still, it seems pretty easy so far: bake cakes, look at books and play with plastic broccoli. I can do that.

Besides, it provides a good conversation piece, when people ask if I have kids and I tell them no, I skipped the kids part and had a granddaughter instead. Modern families eh?